Right before Christmas, my mother and I went to see the Boston Pops. The Symphony Halls is located in the back bay area of Boston. Here's a little historical note: the back bay wasn't originally a part of Boston land-wise, it was build using sediment. It's located right near the State House, Boston Common, and the theatre district. Boston is a small city with a lot of history, culture, and goings-on.

The back bay is home to many restaurants ranging from Italian, taquerias, cafes, and sea food. We ate at Lucca Back Bay. Some reasons we chose to eat here were because this restaurant was one of many in the area that offered valet for free if you were seeing a show at the hall, and who doesn't want Italian?

Lucca was an upscale restaurant that offered a mix of modern and classic Italian food. From the bread, to the appetizer, to the salad, to the entree, to the desert, it was delicious. If you ever go to Lucca, bring your appetite.

These were our salads:

This was my mother's ceasar: winter romaine, traditional Caesar dressing, Parmigiano Reggiano, white anchovy, crostini.

 

My delicious green salad had organic winter greens, black grapes, ricotta salata, spiced grape vinaigrette, candied pecans. 

My chicken was exactly what I needed that cold night. Warm, crispy yet moist statler chicken baby carrots, green apple, pearl onions, parsnip, carrot-tops.  All of the flavors lingered together and married so well. The veggies were great alone or with the chicken, however the onions and the chicken made the perfect bite.

Whipped sweet potatoes, pancetta & maple sciroppo, sage were a perfect accompaniment. The sweetness of the maple made these sweet potatoes indulgently sweet. I wanted to order a gallon if it to to go.

The Boston Public Market, a market full of local stands of cheese, wine, produce, juice, coffee, sweets, IPAs, and more, in Boston opened in July 30th, 2015. It's the only all-local, indoor, year-round public market like it in the United States according to the market's blog. I visited the St. Lawrence market in Toronto, which bore many similarities to it. 

The market is located attached to the Haymarket station so getting there is almost too easy. It is located conveniently close to Fanuel Hall, Boston's North End, the Government Center Garage, and the TD Garden/ North Station.

Sweater: Forever 21

Necklace: Forever 21

Shorts: H&M

Tights: Drugstore

Socks: Aeropostale

Boots: Primark

Jacket: Forever 21

The BPM "Kitchen" offers many cooking, yoga, and more classes to start the year off right.

 The Taza Chocolate bar sold Mexican stone-ground organic chocolate products from cacao. Products include chocolate drinks, wheels, and bars. Flavors range from coffee, to cinnamon, dark, and spicy.

I got a delicious juice from Mother Juice that has watermelon, cucumber, celery, and ginger. They also sell salads, rice bowls, and energy balls.

Q's nuts sold salty and sweet nuts.

We picked up these "Spiker's shrubs" that are multi-purpose. They can be used as a salad dressing marinade, or in a mixed drink. Flavors like pineapple, ginger, mango, and proved interesting enough for us to give it a try. 

The cookbook exchange - take a cookbook, leave a cookbook.

We also took home some organ wheat-based frozen raviolis from Nella pasta! I took home to corn & carmelized onion ravioli to eat at school. My mother and I bought the goat cheese, basil & roasted red pepper raviolis to eat some time this week. Being self-sufficient for my meals at school have given me a new love for frozen pasta. I trust that this frozen meal won't be full of sodium.

Appleton Farms from Ipswich, MA had a map of the local cheese farms in MA! Oh look, there's even one on Martha's Vineyard!

I have a special place in my heart for Asiago.

The BPM even has a place for plant-lovers!

We ate a vietnamese-inspired lunch from Bon Me. It consisted of BBQ pork, carrots, greens, and rice noodles.

Hopper's Alley is an aisle of local IPAs.

Do you have anything like this near you?

As a fellow PR nerd, I thought I'd share this awesome event held by Jamie Adler, head honcho at Bayleaf Communications. It's an earring drive to benefit Windows of Hope Boutique at Beth Israel Hospital, a speciality shop for cancer patients. This month-long event in October will donate all proceeds and earrings to the charity. She is also co-hosting a a fundraiser at the Art Lounge in Arlington, Massachusetts where she hopes to raise money and collect earrings.  Here is a blurb written by Jaimie:

Lastly, here are some Stella & Dot samples:

To donate to her earring drive, mail earrings to:

17 Nichols Rd

Lexington, MA

02420

Don't forget to check out her event at to support a great cause.

Eeep! As a blogger, you have one of those defining moments when a company/website you love contacts you. I just had mine with DailyLook! They asked me to use one of their LBD dresses to style a spring look and enter my Style Set in their competition.

Dailylook does my dream job every single day - they put outfits together for fun. I always turn to them when I'm in need of some outfit inspiration.

An LBD is obviously a staple in many women's closets', however I feel like I haven't really gotten myself a good LBD. I was browsing DailyLook's LBD section and I fell in love with the different ways DL thinks of an LBD. There was fringe, lace, maxi, mini - everything. I chose the Glamorous Patchwork Fringe Dress as my dress to base my outfit off of.

I got my tragus pierced! You can still see the blood drying here still, yikes! This picture was taken almost immediately after, so don't freak out. I've wanted this piercing for about a year now! I have my two holes and my cartilage. The friend that I went with has her tragus pierced, but not her cartilage. Now, we complete each other. We both have the same piercings: tragus and cartilage. I went on a whim. I feel like the best decisions, for me at least, are made on a whim!

This picture is from the first week of break for me. The girl on top is my good friend Alex (the one I got my piercing with), and the bottom picture is my friend from school and radio show co-host Dominique. Dominique lives about an hour and a half from the school we go to, and I only live about 45 minutes. She was still at school to take a final, while no one else was at school. I had her come and sleep at my house. We went out to the hookah bar in New Hampshire near my house where these pictures were taken!

This is a still from a video I posted last Saturday. I saw a christmas show of a few of my favorite bands in Worcester, MA. The bands that played were A Loss For Words, State Champs, and Four Year Strong. It had been soooo long song I've been to a good pop punk show and "threw down" in the pit, and I did! I still have the bruise on my leg to prove it. I may love cute and preppy things, but my taste in music is surprising, I know.

Ah, my first sight of home after driving back from school. I saw this tell-all sign that I knew I was back in Lowell right after I got off the highway. The city of Lowell lights up this tree every holiday season. I swear it can be seen in every spot in Lowell.

This is one of my favorite scenes in the woods near my house where I run. After a long, hard cross country season followed by the holiday break, sometimes I forget why I love to run. Then, I see this. #ShitRunnersSee, right? Now, I'm excited for the pre-season training for my next cross country season and training for my half marathon this summer.

I thought I'd end it with my favorite picture from NYE. I spent mine at Nick's friend's place right outside of Boston. I have to say, it was one of my favorite NYE's in a while. I'm so ready to kill it in 2015. I've made great improvements in 2014, but I'm ready to buckle down and get the ball rolling in 2015  - in my life, my blog, my school, my internships and jobs, etc. Time to get productive!